I am a big Ender's Game and Orson Scott Card fan, but I wouldn't recommend it for most 10yo kids. It is violent, slow, and pretty heavy on the sci fi.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If so, can you recommend another series?

The problem with the Hunger Games is that it has no redeeming value as literature.

There's nothing wrong with Brain Candy if it helps encourage a 10 year old to read.

Why not just go with Finnegan's Wake or Brothers Karmazov while you're at it?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If so, can you recommend another series?

The problem with the Hunger Games is that it has no redeeming value as literature.

And does everything a 10yo picks up has to have "redeeming value as literature"? Puh-leez. And I disagree, actually, from a YA perspective, I think Hunger Games does an excellent job of exploring various themes in an accessible way.

Enders Game is a wonderful dystopia but some may take issue with the main character being involved in WAR at the age of 6, and killing other children soon thereafter.

+1 for the Giver

Anonymous wrote:If so, can you recommend another series?

The problem with the Hunger Games is that it has no redeeming value as literature.

PP here who recommended The Giver. I had my 10 yo read it last summer after she said she wanted to read the Hunger Games, and it was not slow. We read it together, a couple chapters at a time, and talked about every chapter. My DD had never read a Dystopian story before and it was really interesting to discuss what was similar what was different than our world. The book surprised her and we had some great conversations.

How about Enders Game?

There was one scene near the end of the first Hunger Games book (when the mutant dogs are nibbling one of the contestants) that I found a bit disturbing.

14:44 PP here - my 10 yo picked up Masterminds by Gordon Korman a few months ago and loved it.

The Giver is too slow. City of Ember is taught by HGC in MoCo, so I am not sure its inappropriate, but it's also slow. For comic relief my elementary school age child loved the Zombie Chasers - but its not as dark as Hunger Games. My other ES-Age child read the Hunger Games trilogy when he was nine and loved it. We started reading Divergent together, but we both thought that it was not right for him.

Here are some lists of dystopian sci fi novels more appropriate for that age:

http://www.scholastic.com/parents/resources/book-list/adventure-fantasy/dystopian-novels-middle-grade-readers

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/12576.Middle_Grade_Dystopias

Lots of kids in my daughters 5th grade class read it, but she found it disturbing and did not want to read very far.

Should be fine. The books gloss over the violence quite a bit with most of it "off screen". Of course it depends on the maturity of the kid too. But I wouldn't have a problem with it.

I would recommend The City of Ember series. It's another dystopian future story, but without the violence.

I would read The Giver and see how that goes first.

If so, can you recommend another series?